ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2810
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Hey, we've got some forum moderators now. Things won't change much. Mainly, if you've got a gripe about someone's posting, please don't tell that other guy what he should be doing (tends to cause lengthy conversation related to what rules are, what poster intended, apologies, etc.). Instead wait for a forum moderator to come along and handle it. If we happen to miss the offense and there is a standing problem, you can e-mail moderators@caravelgames.com. Moderators are likely to privately contact people causing a problem using PMs or e-mail, so sometimes you won't see a response on the board, but we will still have responded to the problem.

Moderators are schik, oneiromancer, erikh2000, trick, mrimer and mattcrampy.

-Erik

[Edited by mrimer on 03-08-2004 at 04:21 AM GMT]

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Nillo
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 550
Registered: 01-04-2004
IP: Logged

Cool, but the Moderators tab still says n/a (except for News section)

____________________________
“Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.”

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

We did say things wouldn't change much.

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Things just changed a little bit.

We now have a post moderation system in place. Each post can be moderated as "Good" or "Bad" - we're trying to keep it simple, so we don't have a slashdot-esque variety of ways to moderate.

As you can see, the Post Count display on each post has been replace by a Rank Points display. We're trying to emphasise quality over quantity.

Since the forum has been around for over a year but we're just starting this system now, we've set each user's Rank Points to the # of posts required to enter their current level. From now on, level is determined by your Rank Points, so you can move up OR down levels. So if you are a Smitemaster, you've now got 500 Rank Points.

Here's the fun part: If you get moderated as "Good", you can earn moderation points of your own to spend on other posts. So Mod Points will originate from the moderators, but will then trickle down so that everybody gets to join in the fun, and help us out at the same time.

When you are given moderator points, please try to use them wisely. Try to reward posts that are informative, insightful, funny, or in some other way benefit the community.

The specifics of how this all will work are deliberately left out, as it will undoubtedly be changing some as we tweak how it works. The gist of it is: Make good posts, get Rank Points and Mod Points. Make bad posts, lose Rank Points and Mod Points. Don't let this scare you off of posting - many posts will go unmoderated - I think that "Bad" should be used relatively sparingly.


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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

Cool - this will be interesting.

You might want to add someone's current ranking to his or her profile page.

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Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

eytanz wrote:
Cool - this will be interesting.

You might want to add someone's current ranking to his or her profile page.

Yikes, I forgot to upload a file. Done.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

How does one know how many moderation points they have?

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Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Right now you don't really know. I didn't think it should be publicly viewable on the Profile screen. I could always make it show up on the Profile screen only when you're viewing your own Profile.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

I think there should be some way for people to know - otherwise, no-one will use the system (since they won't know when they have mod points, and if they do have, they won't know whether it's worth spending them on any particular post because they won't know if they'll have any left)

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I got my avatar back! Yay!

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I agree. It's done.

Note that at this point, moderating a post costs two (2) Mod points. This is subject to change, and could even change on a per-post level at some point. i.e. it could potentially cost 2 points to moderate one post, but 3 to moderate a different post. We're currently just testing out this way of doing things, and will adjust it as we see fit.

I should probably also mention that nobody can moderate their own posts.

[Edited by Schik on 03-04-2004 at 06:36 AM GMT]

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1184
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Schik wrote:
I should probably also mention that nobody can moderate their own posts.

What? Come on, I don't see any way for that to possibliy go wrong.

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The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 783
Registered: 09-02-2003
IP: Logged

Can we still see the number of posts, though?

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Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Nillo
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 550
Registered: 01-04-2004
IP: Logged

The_Red_Hawk wrote:
Can we still see the number of posts, though?

Yes, in the profile.

____________________________
“Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.”

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1184
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

I just noticed something: where are the Legendary Architects? Like Emmett? Shouldn't they be somewhere visible as well, so we know who they all are?

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Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 783
Registered: 09-02-2003
IP: Logged

Nillo wrote:

The_Red_Hawk wrote:
Can we still see the number of posts, though?

Yes, in the profile.

But I mean on the stats page.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

DiMono wrote:
I just noticed something: where are the Legendary Architects? Like Emmett? Shouldn't they be somewhere visible as well, so we know who they all are?

Hmm. Legendary Architect doesn't have a post count needed to get there. I don't know what to do with Emmett - he's hardly ever here, so it's probably not that important. I'll probably just stick him up there with the Legendary Smitemasters.

One important thing that I guess I might not have made clear:

Levels now depend on your Rank Points rather than your post count. As I mentioned, we're trying to emphasize quality over quantity. This would all be rather silly if Levels still depended on post count.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Free Mod Points all around.

I've given you all 10 free mod points, which amounts to being able to moderate 5 times. As you are moderated positively, you will earn more.

Let's see how this works.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1184
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

The_Red_Hawk wrote:

Nillo wrote:

The_Red_Hawk wrote:
Can we still see the number of posts, though?

Yes, in the profile.

But I mean on the stats page.

If you really must compare your post counts to the other forum members, % of total posts is still on the Stats page.

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

You can also calculate how many days since you registered, and multiply that by the "post/day" count.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1184
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Since we're not supposed to be able to moderate our own posts, should those links be next to them? Wouldn't it make more sense to just have the moderation value?

...and I'm not sure if I like calling it "moderation"

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Nillo
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 550
Registered: 01-04-2004
IP: Logged

And you should probably be able to see your score even if you don't have 2 Mod Points.

____________________________
“Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.”

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

You can now see what posts of yours have been moderated. Just go to your profile, it's the line right below your mod points.

The page is a bit crappy right now - I was just trying to get it out quickly. I can always touch it up later.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Koro
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 74
Registered: 01-16-2004
IP: Logged

Nillo wrote:
And you should probably be able to see your score even if you don't have 2 Mod Points.

And any other posts as well. As soon as I spent my last points, every post on the site had no rank, and it would be a bit of a hassle to look every one up that I am curious about through the user profiles (Edit: not that I can anyway. I just tried, you can only see your own apparrently). Remind me to always keep two points on hand.

[Edited by Koro on 03-05-2004 at 05:07 AM GMT]

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DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1184
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Schik wrote:
You can now see what posts of yours have been moderated. Just go to your profile, it's the line right below your mod points.

The page is a bit crappy right now - I was just trying to get it out quickly. I can always touch it up later.

That's basically what I was envisioning as far as content goes, putting looks aside. However, one of the links in my list is to a post that's not on the first page of a thread, and that link fails to go to the appropriate post. Is this something that can be easily looked at?

Also, what will happen if a moderated post is deleted?

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

DiMono wrote:
However, one of the links in my list is to a post that's not on the first page of a thread, and that link fails to go to the appropriate post. Is this something that can be easily looked at?

Blah. Yeah, I can fix it, but I won't get to it tonight.

Also, what will happen if a moderated post is deleted?

The post is just deleted. Whatever moderation existed on said post is still in effect - i.e. you won't lose or gain points by deleting it.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

DiMono wrote:
That's basically what I was envisioning as far as content goes, putting looks aside. However, one of the links in my list is to a post that's not on the first page of a thread, and that link fails to go to the appropriate post. Is this something that can be easily looked at?

This should be fixed. All of my moderated posts are on the first page of their threads, so I haven't tested it all that much. But I'm just calling a function that I call in other places, so I'm pretty sure it should work.

I also changed it so that moderation levels are viewable by everyone, even if they don't have mod points at the time. And I moved all of the post moderation stuff into the same line as the title of each post - it seems to fit better there.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1184
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Schik wrote:

DiMono wrote:
That's basically what I was envisioning as far as content goes, putting looks aside. However, one of the links in my list is to a post that's not on the first page of a thread, and that link fails to go to the appropriate post. Is this something that can be easily looked at?

This should be fixed. All of my moderated posts are on the first page of their threads, so I haven't tested it all that much. But I'm just calling a function that I call in other places, so I'm pretty sure it should work.

I also changed it so that moderation levels are viewable by everyone, even if they don't have mod points at the time. And I moved all of the post moderation stuff into the same line as the title of each post - it seems to fit better there.

I noticed the location change as you were doing it, when I replied to a thread and that information was in a different place. I love live updates

Anyway, I just checked, and my post on the third page of some thread is being correctly visited, so everything's good again.

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Schik wrote:
And I moved all of the post moderation stuff into the same line as the title of each post - it seems to fit better there.

Just to nitpick a tad, I think it would look better if there were a bit more space between the post title and the moderation stuff. It's a bit cramped right now, to my eyes. Just my opinion though.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1184
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Didn't someone say modding was supposed to take up 2 mod points? I've modded one post, which puts me down by one mod point instead of 2. Some kindly forum admin can check my numbers to make sure I'm not indulging in things I shouldn't be, but I think this should be changed, sort of nowish.

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5526
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

DiMono wrote:
Didn't someone say modding was supposed to take up 2 mod points? I've modded one post, which puts me down by one mod point instead of 2. Some kindly forum admin can check my numbers to make sure I'm not indulging in things I shouldn't be, but I think this should be changed, sort of nowish.

Did you check to see if anyone modded a post of yours up in the meanwhile? Testing shows that it goes down by 2 for me. Looking at the code tells me the same thing.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi